Gambas A Go Go!

We discovered this little place just a little too late in our adventure . . . or just in time for our cholesterol levels. Right around the corner from our Geneva apartment is a place that served "Gambas-a-go-go", meaning all you can eat shrimp!!! Yummy! It is a little pricet at 39 CHF per person but it is all you can eat. A salad and fries are included, but the real star is the huge shrimp cooked perfectly in a garlic butter sauce. It's impossible to eat these things without getting your fingers a mess, but the taste is so worth it. It's quite funny to see Europeans who hardly ever eat with their hands dig in and get messy. We ate here our last night in Geneva and took J&C back when they dropped us off after our 2 weeks together. It's a lot of shrimp! And you can keep asking for more!

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BBQ "Chicken" Pizza & Leffe Tripel

I have been a bit of a mini pizza kick lately and been trying to incorporate more of the fake meat products I find at the Migros. This recipe uses the fake chicken bits by the company Quorn. I have also been trying to use up our imported products like the BBQ sauce we bought in Manhattan. This recipe is simple and delicious and completely made in the toaster oven and stovetop.

Ingredients Assembled and Ready To Go

Ingredients:

Quantities and Measurements for these items are all up to your tastes!

1. Pre Made Pizza Dough ~ or if you have the time you can make it from scratch.

2. Fake Chicken (or real chicken cooked thru on the stovetop)

3. Red Onions for Caramelizing

4. Mozzarella

5. BBQ Sauce of your choosing

6. Fresh Cilantro or Coriander, chopped. This is a key ingredient to the flavor!

(Ignore the tomatoes ~ I didn't end up using them, but you can if you wish)

Directions:

1. Slice and caramelize red onions. This will take awhile so you want to get it started before anything else. Also, if your using real chicken, it would be a great time to sauté them. Bonus: you could marinate real chicken and bbq them on a grill for a smokey flavor. You could also use leftover BBQ chicken for this easy pizza.

2. Cut dough into rounds and par-bake; aka half bake.

3. Mix "chicken" bits with BBQ sauce

4. Spread BBQ Sauce like you would a pizza sauce on rounds

5. Top with caramelized onions

6. Top with "chicken" mixture

7. Top with mozzarella slices

8. Tope with cilantro and dab more BBQ sauce on top

9. Bake till it looks like melty goodness. Enjoy with a nice cold beer! My choice was Belgium Leffe Tripel!

Before they went into the oven

Post Oven Gooey-Goodness

BBQ and Pizza enjoyed with Leffe Tripel

Tripel Style, 8.1%

Brewed by Abbey De Leffe in Belgium

We have previously tried another style from Leffe, and really enjoyed this one. Leffe is readily available in lots of stores all over the US, CoOp's in CH, and E'LECLERC stores on the French side of the border.

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Istanbul ~ Street Food!

What would a vacation be is without sampling some of the street food! Here is what we came across in Istanbul. There are a ton of doner kebab vendors and each with differant kinds of meats and preperations. My favorite was the Durom Doner which the best way to describe it as a Turkish Burrito. The fillings are placed in a very thin flour like wrap that was a bit stretchy and not brittle like a tortilla can be. Kebab meat (chicken or lamb) is scrapped off and the rest of the burrito is filled with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and sometimes french fries. All for 3 Lira.... good deal! Pictures of more food below!

WTF? El Torito? Well, at least they were selling "Dondurma" the Turkish elastic ice cream made with wild orchid tubers. It can stretch up to 2' long! There are a lot of dondurma vendors and most of them have bells above the ice cream containers and they ring them to attract tourists. It was hot, but we resisted the urge to eat some.

"Simit" ~ basically a pretzel with sugar or sesame seeds. Yummy.

Corn - Roasted or Boiled. 1 Lira. Available everywhere. Your going to need a toothpick after this one.

Fish Sandwich off the boats at Eminonu. The ultimate and cheap Turkish fast food.

The pickle juice to go with it.

Eating pierside with the locals.

Below ~ some videos of the crazyness! The boats are rocking and fish smells yummy!

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European Cantaloupe

True Cantaloupe

I finally bought a true european cantaloupe a few weeks ago at the farmer's market. I have been excited to try this new melon since it is different then the North American "musk melon" which is sold as cantaloupe in the states. Notice the exterior of the European melon doesn't have the spidery web ribs like the musk melon and has a smooth exterior with green stripes. (More Information Here) The color is a bit darker and the one I bought seemed a bit sweeter. I hate buying pre cut up melons from stores in the US since the fruit seems to be water logged and tasteless. I paired the cantaloupe with some nice swiss "Heidi" brand prosciutto from the Migros. Very Italian summertime treat. Making it at home is SOOO much cheaper then ordering it at a bistro along the Mediterranean.

Dark Orange Inside & Paired with Prosciutto

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Fig, Goat Cheese, Caramelized Onion Mini Pizza's

At the Ferney market this weekend we found a stand selling fresh figs. I didn't notice the "Ne Pa Toucher" sign and tried to touch some. The guy at the fruit stand yelled at me and I jolted back. This little encounter didn't stir me from buying some of this delicate fruit. 1 euro for 2 large figs was a pretty good deal. I delicately carried them around the market and tried to not get them smashed among all our other purchases.

The fresh figs

Here is what we made with them . . .


Fig, Goat Cheese, and Caramelized Onion Mini Pizza's

Ingredients



Sliced Fresh Figs
Pizza Dough
Onions
Olive or Safflower Oil for caramelizing the onions
Goat Cheese (we used a stinky creamy kind but the regular crumbly kind is perferable)
Arugula or other small pungent green
Balsamic Vinegar
Honey



Directions:

1. Cut dough into rounds and bake to 65% of the way done



2. Cut onions really thin and caramelize (this may take 15 minutes or so)



3. Top baked pizza's with already cooked onions, sliced figs, then the goat cheese



3. Bake pizza's again until cheese is melted or lightly browned

4. Top with small argula salad. Dressing for arugula salad is half honey and balsamic vinegar.



You'll be really surprised on how well all of the flavors meld together! Nothing overpowered the dish and it quickly disappeared from out dinner plates. Bon Apetit!

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Recipe - Pesto Spinich Stuffed Salmon

Cooked and Served With Caramelized Mushrooms

 

 Before Putting into Oven

Recipe Adapted From All Recipes - Spinach Stuffed Salmon

Ingredients:

Two Thick Fresh Salmon Fillets - I purchased them from Halle De Rive In Geneva

10 oz bag of washed baby spinach- chopped into small pieces

1 spoonful of prepared pesto

2-3 chopped up sun-dried tomatoes

Zest of 1 lemon and Juice of 1/2 a lemon

2 Garlic Cloves Chopped Finely

Plenty of Ground Black Pepper

Pinch of Sel De Mare - "Sea Salt"

Directions:

Slit fillets into two halves creating a pocket but not cutting all the way thru. Combine all ingredient besides lemon juice. Place filling into salmon pockets. Squeeze lemon juice on top. Salt and Pepper top if desired. Bake till salmon is done and flakey!

As for cooking time, I would just keep an eye on it. We have to bake everything in a toaster oven, so the time I give you would be way off then regular oven!

Rob really enjoyed this meal so I decided to share it with you!

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Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

In my quest to eat healthier and more like an herbivore . . . I have been reading vegan food blogs and trying out some of the recipes. This one from Happy Herbivore turned out well. Rob hasn't tried it yet, but hopefully he will enjoy it. I am really on a muffin kick and baking them every week. Banana Crumb, Blueberry, and Oatmeal. 

     

Tami - this one is for you! Try it! 

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No Marshmallow's Allowed - Rice Cereal Snacks

So, Rob doesn't eat marshmallow's because they contain gelatin. Gelatin is made from animal bones that are boiled up. That may sound kinda gross to some, sounds pretty tasty to me! I remember my mother boiling bones and letting me suck the goodness out the the middle.

Anyways, I have been on a hunt for a substitute rice cereal snack that is ooey gooey enough that the marshmallow is not missed. Here is the recipe I used. They didn't stick together so well, but they tasted amazing! Instead of dried cherries, I used cranraisins. Next time I am going to try to use more peanut butter and hopefully the stickyness will improve.

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How to Cut a Pineapple

Lately, in the supermarkets here in Geneva I have found an abundance of pineapples for sale. I don't know how often or how much the Swiss actually eat this fruit, but I am taking advantage while they are around! I have really been missing spring and summer seasonal fruits and can't wait for them to come into the stores here. Unlike the US, you can't find fruits that are out of season. In the very Swiss way of conservation, they eat what is in season and therefore help global warming by not importing plums from Chile. I do miss my Chilean plums . . . but I suppose SoCal is a lot closer to Chile then Switzerland.  Don't get me wrong - if you search long enough, you can find the fruits you want, but you have to search hard! 

Anyway, back to the pineapple. My mother in law Tami taught me how to cut the pineapple in a very presentable way. I will share this technique with you! Thanks Tami!

An old picture of the final product. 

Cut Pineapple presentation covered with spring and summer fruits. 

Step 1 - Buy a Pineapple

Step 2 - Cut pineapple in half lengthwise. Leave the leaves alone!

Step 3 - Cut into quarters

Step 4 - Cut under the ridge of core

 Step 5 - Cut from the ridge along the base all the way thru the quarter section. 

Step 6 - Slide piece out

 Step 7 - Cut into finger size bits

Step 8 - Put back into pineapple shell for presentation

Step 9 - All four quarters finished

Step 10 - Feed it to happy husband who is watching Meet the Press.

He is happy about the pineapple but mad at Republican governors. 

The End! 

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From Scratch - Lentil Burgers

What's cooking for dinner?

Lentil Burgers on Homemade Seasame Buns. Yum. 

Try it out for yourself!

Recipe for Hamburger Rolls. Recipe for Lentil Burgers.

I used green lentils instead of black and added some more spices to the mixtuire. It turned out a little salty but had great texture.  Not bad at my first attempt at using dried lentils! 

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Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is Chinese New Year and begins the year of the Ox.  Food surrounds most of what Chinese people desire. No surprise there. I made homemade jiao zi with homemade wrappers, shrimp, shitake, leeks, scallions, sesame oil, soy sauce, and garlic. Make some new years delights yourself - here is a great list. I have fond memories of making wrappers with my mother with her small wooden rolling pin. I had to resort to a small glass. Oh the joys of an unequipped kitchen. Here is a small piece of good luck advice: When you eat the dumplings, you are not supposed to count how many you eat. For the new year - you don't want to have to count your pennies, so don't count how many you eat. Good luck and prosperity to all this new year! 

Boiled dumplings; (shuijiao) literally "water dumplings" (水餃; pinyin: shuǐjiǎo).

Before They Are Boiled

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Leek & Potato Soup

I have been meaning to post these pictures all week. For L'Escalade this past weekend it is traditional to eat vegetable soup. There were lots of vendors downtown serving up this treat but Rob is always wary of soup if you can't read the ingredients. You never know if it has chicken broth or hunks of pig in it for "flavoring". So instead of munching downtown, we made our own "vegetable" soup. I know this isn't traditional but the ingredients are cheap and it is warm on a cold day. We adapted this dish from Alton Brown's original found here. 

 
Cut Up Leeks (4-6 depending on size)

Add 2 TBSP Butter & Cook In Large Stockpot Over Medium Heat

Leeks should soften up and become translucent. Add  salt to help break down. 

Cut Up  4-5 Small Potatoes. Do not use Russets.

Add Vegetable Broth & Simmer on Low (45 minutes)

Turn Off Heat and Add Cream/Milk/Buttermilk. 

Optional Step: Use Immersion Blender and Liquify Into Creamy Soup.  We didn't have an immersion blender and we like our soup chunky. 

Prepare some side dishes! We seared up some gorgeous scallops and have some lemon wedges ready to go. 

Serve Up! Yum! I recommend serving with hot sauce and sour cream. Or cut up greenery like scallions, dill, and chives. 

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